Shandong Chicken Recipe
“Every comfort food dish in every country ultimately comes down to carbs’ n’ sauce,” says Lucy Tweed, author of cookbook Every Night of the Week and creator of this recipe. And beyond the carbs n’ sauce you’ll also need protein; it doesn’t matter what size chicken you choose, but Lucy tends to veer towards 1.2 kg.
Equipment
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Deep Baking Dish
- 1 Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 1 Whole Chicken, spine removed and pressed flat* you can ask your butcher to do this for you
Sauce
- 125 ml Soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp Honey
- 5 cm Knob of ginger, peeled and left whole
- 3 Whole Spring onions, white parts roughly chopped, green tops reserved for garnish
- 1 Whole Onion, quartered
- 3 Tbsp Chinese black vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Chilli bean paste
- 1 Tbsp Chicken stock powder
Noodles
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- 2 Bunches Water spinach, cut into 10cm pieces
- 6 Whole Garlic cloves, sliced
- 500 gram Fresh rice noodles (or use dry noodles cooked according to the packet instructions)
- 1 Tbsp Sesame oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Finely slice the green spring onion tops lengthways or on a very sharp angle and put in a glass of iced water so they curl up. Completely unnecessary when it comes to flavour but such a fun accessory.
- Warm all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan with 125ml water.
- Put the chicken in a deep baking dish lined with baking paper and pour the sauce over the top.
- Place in the oven for 45 minutes (and put on a podcast). Lucy puts a piece of foil over hers at about 25 minutes because the skin can really take that self tan look too far! Not tight, just literally rest the foil on the top. Untucked.
- While that’s happening, get the noodles ready. In a large frying pan over medium heat, add the oil and cook the spinach and garlic slivers until the garlic just starts to brown. You can use ordinary spinach as a substitute but it isn’t as silky in texture.
- Add the rice noodles and 3 tablespoons water to loosen them. Toss this well and dress with the sesame oil.
- Cut the chicken into pieces to serve. (The hardest bit is the thigh bone but you can leave this part whole if you like. Everything else you can snip at the joint.)
- Slice the now candied ginger to serve on top, along with the curly green tops of the spring onions.